I've just tried the 1366 with 2 instead of 3 sticks of RAM: no difference that my eyes can see. I guess that explodes my theory about the RAM!Tim

Thank you Tim, really. I've asked 1366 users countless times to run this test and you're the only one who actually did it (or reported results)

Wow, this entire discussion makes me grateful FSX runs as well as it does on my very ancient Core 2 Quad 9650 and lowly nV 280GTX! I run all sliders except autogen/water effects/traffic hard right. I experience minimal to no stutters, frames at the very lowest of maybe 19 in places like KJFK in the bloomin NGX--as long as the mouse cursor issue is managed, and that's only for part of the taxiing and shortly after takeoff I'm well over 20! Move that scenario to places I normally fly, and I'm locked at 30! I'm totally amazed that there isn't virtually NO issues ever w/ performance w/ these powerhouses of performance!Hope IB brings something huge to the table for me! I hope to build an IB platform w/ SSD's. That WILL make it worthwhile, I hope!Noel

I really enjoyed my 3.6GHz overclocked Q9550 and 275 GTX. It worked very well with even the toughest ORBX scenery. If I had left well enough alone and avoided several upgrades, I could have saved quite a bit of cash and would be enjoying the flights just as much. That being said, Ivy Bridge should be stunning, and well worth waiting for I think.Kind regards,

I really enjoyed my 3.6GHz overclocked Q9550 and 275 GTX. It worked very well with even the toughest ORBX scenery. If I had left well enough alone and avoided several upgrades, I could have saved quite a bit of cash and would be enjoying the flights just as much. That being said, Ivy Bridge should be stunning, and well worth waiting for I think.Kind regards,

I hope so. I think it depends quite a bit on overclockability since the extra transistors are going to the GPU as I understand it, however PCIe 3 & SSD's combined w/ better overclockability should offer a nice upgrade for me. I'm still using a 1680x1050 screen, and that lightens my load a little. My wife needs a new screen, so once again, I am tempted to send this very nice one to her and get a 1900 x 1080 Dell Ultrasharp. What impact will that have do you think over my smaller screen, on a new IB platform w/ excellent memory and nV Keplar based GPU, maybe 5% hit is all I hope?

I really enjoyed my 3.6GHz overclocked Q9550 and 275 GTX. It worked very well with even the toughest ORBX scenery. If I had left well enough alone and avoided several upgrades, I could have saved quite a bit of cash and would be enjoying the flights just as much. That being said, Ivy Bridge should be stunning, and well worth waiting for I think.Kind regards,

I am not so sure that Ivy Bridge will bring massive performance improvements, not based on what I have read so far anyway. It seems the focus is on efficiency and low power consumption. That does not necessarily = higher performance unless you assume that lower power consumption and less heat = higher overclock headroom. This may not be the case.As it stands, it appears a 20-30% efficiency over Sandy Bridge can be obtained. Performance wise, it appears we can expect 5-15% depending on the application. (and how it uses L3 cache, with 5-10% being more common. In fact a lot of this perf increase has been attributed to the higher turbo that has been implemented for Ivy Bridge - not really a concern for us that are already overclocking)As Ivy Bridge is only really a die shrink of Sandy Bridge, I would expect these numbers to be pretty accurate. (The only new addittion is really the 3D tri-gate transistors)So, FWIW, I would not be expecting a massive perf boost in FSX with Ivy Bridge unless the CPU is capable of hitting an overclock ~5.5 - 6Ghz which I highly doubt.I would love to be proved wrong of course, especially as Ivy Bridge will fit in my existing set up!

You will likey not be too wrong with that assessment. As release time draws nearer, we will be given further pieces of the puzzle I am sure. Sandy Bridge is excellent in FSX in any case, and really nothing more is really needed for happy times flight simming.Kind regards,

You will likey not be too wrong with that assessment. As release time draws nearer, we will be given further pieces of the puzzle I am sure. Sandy Bridge is excellent in FSX in any case, and really nothing more is really needed for happy times flight simming.Kind regards,

As I said, I hope I am wrong....really.We could all use more horsepower.

I am not so sure that Ivy Bridge will bring massive performance improvements, not based on what I have read so far anyway. It seems the focus is on efficiency and low power consumption.As Ivy Bridge is only really a die shrink of Sandy Bridge, I would expect these numbers to be pretty accurate. (The only new addittion is really the 3D tri-gate transistors)

I tend to agree Glenn. As well, those additional transistors as I understand it are mainly going to the GPU.I will say the addition of 3D tri-gate could be potentially quite significant. I think theoretically these two aspects, smaller (better heat dissipation = lower resistance) and more efficient (less voltage = lower heat), are completely compatible with what it takes to improve the chip's overclockability, all else being equal. It's easy to imagine tri-gate architecture could lead to issues such as lowering the threshold for electromigration and therefore zeroing out some of the positive attributes we just talked about. These things being said, I'm leaning towards better overclockability, which combined with PCIe 3 16x interconnect, make IB look favorable. I think another possible clue that supports IB's favorability is the very fact they've gone w/ higher turbo, however I can imagine Intel could do this just to give the appearance of better performance as it were. But there are known architectural differences, as well as the size/tri-gate issue. We'll see soon, April they are now saying.I wonder how the cache will affect FSX. How much of the total processing in FSX involves floating point operations? If it's significant it may bode well it would appear.Noel

FSX has had its day, old programme.

Yeah, I can relate. That's the same problem I have...

Yeah, I can relate. That's the same problem I have...

Can't wait to get my new system in 2 weeks!!.....(Specs in sig)I have a friend who pushed his 2700k to 5.3GHZ...

a lot of this perf increase has been attributed to the higher turbo that has been implemented for Ivy Bridge

It's often difficult to discern, but that hasn't been my understanding from the articles I have read. None of them have come out and said that at least. Regardless, it seems all the elements for higher overclocking are there (lower voltage, less heat, and 3D transistors capable of operating at higher frequencies). I'm not inferring this is going to result in clocks of 5.5 to 6.0GHz. You have to realize that the average Sandy Bridge can realistically only hit 4.8 or less without really juicing it. 5.25GHz sustainable would be a respectable improvement for a tick cycle.I'm not as excited about the clock speed improvements, however, as I am the upgrade to PCI-E 3.0. I don't know enough about how FSX works to argue that PCI-E 3.0 is going to make a difference, but so far, Sandy Bridge has already massively increased CPU performance, 2133MHz memory is readily available and several of us are running it, and SSDs now make for a screaming fast storage solution.In other words, the whole pathway from storage to CPU output has been upgraded. And while these advances have helped FSX performance and made it a much better experience, we still see those micro stutters. The only hardware aspect that hasn't changed is PCI-E 2.0. Process of elimination would lead me to think PCI-E 3.0 could possibly have an impact! I don't see what else could be restricting our systems at this point.

With all this said...Let's hope the drop-in replacement LGA 1155 3770K IvyBridge CPU will give the promised 10-20% boost (over an identically clocked 2600K/2700K), and can be easily pushed above 5GHz because of it's low TDP.

With all this said...Let's hope the drop-in replacement LGA 1155 3770K IvyBridge CPU will give the promised 10-20% boost (over an identically clocked 2600K/2700K), and can be easily pushed above 5GHz because of it's low TDP.

Yes sir, I'll drink (coke) to that! :drinks:

I just built my new system. My old system was i7-920 @3.9GHZ with GTX260 SSD Force 3 and 6GB GSkill RAM

New system Gigabyte x79-ud3 i7-3930K @3.2 Ghz stock speed!! GTX570 16GB RAM 1600mhz

My usual test site is at ORBX Melbourne with REX2 and all eye candy on.

With the old system I was getting around 6fps but with the new one today I was getting 16-18fps!!! also the textures looked much more realistic and the motion was more fluid. I absolutely agree with this original post the 3930K is a an absolute monster and I am yet to overclock it!

I am sure the PCIE3 also helps along with the fast memory but yes this CPU is definitely better than the 2600K or 2700K.

Hihgly recommended. I could not wait for Ivy to come out but I no longer need to with this setup. First time I am very happy with FSX since it's release.

how expensive is the 3930k ?